Nu Couché (Reclining Nude) was sold in New York after a protracted bidding battle to a buyer who wished to remain anonymous, according to the auction house.

The 1917-18 painting had the highest pre-sale estimate of any lot in the three sales by the major auction houses of Impressionist, modern, postwar and contemporary art.

The painting became the tenth work of art to sell for more than $100 million at auction, and was nearly joined by Roy Lichtenstein's 1964 Nurse, which sold for $95.3 million on Monday night, smashing the previous record for a work by the pop artist.

There was an audible intake of breath in Christie’s Rockefeller Centre auction room in midtown Manhattan when the bids for the vibrantly-hued canvas of Les femmes d’Alger (Version O) hit $150 million. At $151 million, Jussi Pylkkanen, the Christie’s president, chief auctioneer and master of ceremonies for the evening, declared: “We’re in new territory”. Three million dollars later, some attendees simply laughed. And at $160 million - or that historic figure of $179.4 million when all the fees were included – Mr Pylkkanen spread his arms, cast his eyes around the room a final time and brought down his hammer.

Picture: Getty

When will you Marry? (Nafea faa ipoipo), Paul Gaugin, £197 million

In February this year Gaugin’s 1892 oil painting sold at the highest price ever for a work of art: $300 million, or £197 million. It was sold privately by major Swiss art collector Rudolf Staechelin to an unknown buyer. When Gaugin returned to Europe from Tahiti in the early 1890s, his paintings of indigenous subjects (When Will You Marry? among them) were met with indifference, but later influenced the likes of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Joan Miró.

Picture: EPA

The Card Players, Paul Cézanne, £158.4 million

Cézanne’s 1890s painting of two working-class men from his family’s estate was bought by the Qatari royal family for $250 million (£158.4 million) - more than double the previous auction record. Although the sale took place in 2011, the details of the secret deal only emerged in February 2012. The painting had previously belonged to Greek shipping magnate George Embiricos and the four other Cézanne paintings in the post-Impressionist series are held by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Courtauld Institute in London and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

Picture: Handout

Three Studies of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, £89.3 million

The Francis Bacon triptych of his friend and rival artist Lucian Freud became the most valuable work of art ever sold at auction in November 2013, fetching $142.4 million (almost £90 million) at Christie's in New York. 'Three Studies of Lucian Freud', which was painted in painted in 1969, was one of only two full-length triptychs Bacon ever painted of Freud.

Picture: EPA

No. 5, Jackson Pollock, £89 million

Another sale shrouded in secrecy, the purchase of Jackson Pollock’s 1948 painting No. 5 was brokered by Sotheby’s. David Martinez reportedly bought the 8’ x 4’ piece of fibreboard, covered in drips of brown and yellow paint from Dreamworks co-founder David Geffen for $140 million, or £89 million, in November 2006. The New York Times reported the sale, but Martinez’s law firm later issued a statement saying he did not own it. The above image is of Pollock’s No. 4 painting, which sold in Sotheby’s for £25 million.

Picture: Getty Images

Woman III, Willem de Kooning, £88.3m

In 2006, hedge fund Steven A. Cohen bought one of Dutch painter de Kooning's “Woman” series for approximately $137.5 million from super collector and head of Geffen Records, David Geffen.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Gustav Klimt, £85.7 million

Cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder broke the record for the highest sum ever paid for a painting in July 2006 when he paid $135 million (£85.7 million) for Gustav Klimt’s 1907 work, Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer 1. Again, this is a price gauged by experts close to the deal, as Mr Lauder was forbidden from revealing the price, which was negotiated by Christie’s.

Picture: AFP

The Scream, Edvard Munch, £76.3 million

Edvard Munch’s expressionist masterpiece was bought by an anonymous buyer for $120 million (£76.3 million) at Sotheby’s New York in 2012. The painting’s previous owner was businessman Petter Olsen, who acquired it as his father was a friend of Munch’s. Bidding lasted just 12 minutes and the work had a starting price of $40 million.

Picture: AFP

Garcon à la Pipe, Pablo Picasso, £66.1 million

Picasso’s charming portrait was at the centre of a telephone bidding war at Sotheby’s in 2004, and was finally sold for $104.1 million. The painting was sold by the collectors and gallerists John Hay Whitney and Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney. The influence of this pair in the art world is thought to have boosted the price of the painting.

Picture: EPA

Portrait of Dr Gachet, Vincent van Gogh, £52.4 million

Van Gogh’s portrait of the medic who cared for him in the final months of his life broke records when it was sold in 1990 for $82.5 million. The portrait was bought by a Tokyo art dealer on behalf of Japanese industrialist Ryoei Saito. However, when Saito died in debt, the painting disappeared into the international art market and its whereabouts remain unknown.

Picture: AP

Diana and Actaeon, Titian, £50 million

This painting by Renaissance master Titian is one in a series of seven famous “poesies” canvasses by the painter. Now in the joint possession of the National Gallery in London and the National Galleries of Scotland, the previous owner the Duke of Sutherland claimed he didn’t do too well out of the £50 million deal. The Duke will avoid inheritance tax and capital gains tax by selling the paintings to public collections, however he was reported saying he could have made more money by selling them in the open market.

Picture: Reuters

Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, £49.6 million

Sold in 1990, Renoir’s depiction of Sunday afternoon jollity in Paris’s Montmartre reached $78.1 million at an auction held at Sotheby’s. As the painting was also bought by the controversial Japanese industrialist Ryoei Saito, its whereabouts are also unknown after Saito’s death. It is thought to be in the hands of a Swiss collector.

Picture: Biography Channel

Portrait of Joseph Roulin, Vincent Van Gogh, £36.7 million

In 1989 the Museum of Modern Art in New York bought this painting from a private collection in Zurich for $58 million (£36.7 million). Accounting for inflation, this remains one of the most expensive paintings ever sold. The portrait was painted exactly 100 years before the sale and is one of six Van Gogh painted of his close friend Roulin, who was a postman in Arles.